The Heart of a Brother
by rockgoddess42
Summary: Two friends reunited as brothers through the danger placed in the lives of one


The Heart of a Brother

Weakly flickering my eyes open, my neck throbbing painfully, I could hear a voice in the distance calling my name frantically, and tried so desperately to respond.

In an instant the voice clicked in my mind and let out a soft sigh of relief recognizing my best friend Rafe's voice, my hero, my protector.

As quickly as I could I eased my way out of what was left of the plane, and collapsed.

"Danny." I heard Rafe sigh in relief as he reached my side and felt his hand gently smoothing my bangs back out of my eyes in a soft big brother gesture.

I tried to sit up and felt my neck throbbing become excruciatingly painful and my head aching and cried out.

Hearing Rafe's sigh of sympathy he placed a gentle hand on my chest keeping me still and spoke softly, "Hey easy easy easy kiddo just lay still take it easy."

"I've had better landings." I joked weakly and barely noticed Rafe not even cracking a smile as he focused on my injuries.

Groaning in pain as he replied, "Yeah well you saved us back there." I felt him lean in slightly and grip the collar of my uniform pulling it out a bit to inspect the damage where the pain was coming from.

"I-I got s-something i-in my n-neck." Crying out to Rafe as annoying as he may be as an over protective big brother I needed him to make it all better.

Feeling his hand slightly wrap around the back of my neck giving me comfort but also keeping me steady he whispered gently, "Let me try to get this out for ya Danny hang on okay?"

I could feel the slight twist and turn as Rafe tried to ease the broken piece from the plane stuck in my neck out without hurting me further.

As the pain dug in and grew, I gritted my teeth and squeezed my eyes shut and could feel Rafe's waves of sympathy rolling off, and could picture him locking his jaw painfully, at the pain he was inadvertently causing.

Suddenly due to neither of us having noticed since Rafe's entire focus had been on my injury my eyes widened as I saw a Jap sneak up behind Rafe.

Before either of us could do anything, I watched horrified as the man head butted Rafe with his gun.

Coming to my senses a bit and clearing my eyes I could see the Japs surrounding us and hearing the shouting and guns blasting.

"Rafe." I cried trying to get him to wake up. I could see his head rolling and his eyes clearing as he came around again.

Within an instant there was a gun being pointed at my head, as I tried to breathe deeply.

They had us at a disadvantage as they had us all at gun - point and had Rafe in their grip.

I felt myself being pulled upward to stand and felt them tying me to some hard wooden board tying my hands and forcing me to walk.

Locking my eyes onto Rafe trying to gain some comfort in the situation and offer in response how sorry I was for everything that came between us.

Feeling the intensity of big brother protectiveness and sympathy and acceptance of the apology waving off Rafe in that moment, I squeezed my eyes through the pain.

Not even realizing what had happened I noticed the guards around me were all hit, and saw Rafe with a gun in his hand pointing it at my captures.

We both realized suddenly that the gun in his hand at jammed making us both defenseless.

Seeing one of the Japs aiming his gun at my best friend my big brother without even thinking about it, I threw myself at him in the way of where the gun was aimed.

There was so much noise and chaos surrounding us as guns went off, and blasts and heard cries from a distance.

I felt a white hot pain in my chest as I collapsed and could hardly breath as I panicked.

Everything was over before I realized what was happening, and Rafe was by my side calling my name as again I felt him smoothing my hair back as he began untying me.

"Danny, kiddo can you hear me? Come on Danny, talk to me little brother."

"R-Ra." I cried out weakly begging my big brother to make the pain go away as I heard him whisper words of comfort and reassurance that I was okay and he was there with me.

"It's alright Danny just hold on one sec I gotcha. You're alright you're okay."

Barely even feeling as he comfortingly slipped the wooden object away from me and placed a gentle hand under my head cradling it softly.

I could feel the intensity of his gaze even without my eyes open as he glanced at my pained expression for a moment and cried, I-I'm n-not…. I-I'm n-not g-gonna m-make i-it."

Rafe answered me in a passionate and convinced voice saying, "yes you are yes you are now open your eyes and look at me kiddo."

Crying softly from the gun shot wounds in my chest as I began choking, "R-Ra I-I'm s-so c-cold." Trying to grasp my breath I heard him say gently to me, "You're okay hey."

Shivering like crazy I could feel myself being pulled in slightly towards him as he cradled me in his arms holding me protectively to him trying desperately to share as much warmth with me as he could.

Leaning into his cradling hold burrowing myself into his chest feeling like his baby brother again the days where he could do anything to protect me.

I felt him place his chin against my forehead gently and could hear him trying not to cry, but failing.

"Hey Ra." I spoke as I fought through the bouts of pain I felt making its way around I gasped."

"Can you do me a favor?" I asked as I began struggling for breath even more holding onto every precious moment I had with him.

"What?" Ever the big brother I heard him coo softly and gently in my ear, as he again used one hand to smooth my hair out of my eyes like he had done many times when they were little.

"C-could you have someone else write my name on the tombstone?" I joked weakly.

Suddenly I realized how wrong I was to joke as I made him angry at me for accepting my near death as I felt him loosen his hold to try and get through to me.

"You're not gonna die look at me listen to me Danny!" He ranted as he gripped onto my collar furiously shaking me refusing to let me go.

"You ain't gonna die do you hear me kid?" Pulling me in a little more gently he said gently, "Hey look at me."

Feeling his hand once again ease under my head to keep my head up meeting his eyes he cried, "Danny you can't die you can't die you know why huh? Because you got Evelyn waitin at home for ya and me what about big brother huh? You can't leave me now Danny please just hang on please little brother."

I reached out and gripped his jacket like a lifeline as he pulled me closer and held me, and that is when we finally actually heard the first most beautiful sound in a long time.

Help had arrived and Rafe cradled me close as they had sort of a makeshift stretcher and reached down to help get me up, but Rafe refused to relinquish his hold on me protectively.

Racing alongside the stretcher to the plane I could feel Rafe's hand in mine not letting go and his constant whispers of reassurance through my bouts of pain, "Ssssshh Danny I'm here just breathe through it that's it. Stay with me kiddo."

As they loaded me up I had practically lost consciousness by then but with the comfort of knowing I was back with my big brother again, I was home.


End file.
